Hyaluronic acid in the treatment of shoulder capsulitis

The use of hyaluronic acid in the treatment of shoulder capsulitis: a systematic review.

Article specifications

This review study was published in 2017 in Journal of Int J Biol Macromol. (IF 2015: 1.36) by Italian specialists. The aim of this study was to review current literature in order to evaluate the best evidence about the effectiveness of intra-articular HA injection for the treatment of primary AC. We searched Medline, CINAHL, Embase, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library. We selected studies Comparing clinical outcomes of patients treated with HA in association or not with conventional therapy. Seven studies were evaluated: 2 uncontrolled randomized studies and 5 prospective randomized clinical trials with level of evidence I.

 

Result

When compared with cortisone intra-articular injection, HA has equivalent clinical outcomes. The heterogeneity of treatments used in the studies reviewed, makes it difficult to draw a definite conclusion on the subject. HA injections do not seem to determine the final outcomes directly compared with conventional treatments. Numerous variables, including use of lidocaine, different HA and AC stages, could influence the results and deserve to be accounted for in future investigations.